


JayTim Week - Photography

by redrobinfection (ChristmasRivers)



Series: JayTim Week 2016 [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Coming Out, Family Drama, M/M, Photography, Press and Tabloids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 10:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7680586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/pseuds/redrobinfection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce confronts Tim over a sensational photograph depicting him and Jason holding hands in public and Tim doesn't back down from speaking his mind on the matter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	JayTim Week - Photography

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for the fourth day of the tumblr JayTim Week 2016

“Tim, I need to speak with you.”

Tim raised his eyebrows in question to the stony expression on Bruce’s face.

“What is _this_?”

“It would appear to be a photograph,” Tim responded, steadily meeting Bruce’s glare from over the newspaper clipping he thrust into Tim’s face.

“A photograph of you holding hands with Jason Todd.”

“Yes.”

Bruce’s face darkened further. “A picture of you holding hands with him in broad daylight surrounded by numerous people.”

“Yes, what about it?” Tim continued casually, moving towards the stairs up to the Manor. Bruce had intercepted him just as he was about to leave the Cave for breakfast, but now it looked like getting his coffee fix before heading off to school would have to wait. It had been a long night on patrol and he hadn’t had a chance to sleep so he hoped they settled this quickly.

Bruce drew himself up to his full height, pulling out his most imposing glare, the kind that would have had common criminals scurrying if matched with his cape and cowl. “A picture of you holding hands with Jason Todd, in full view of anyone, _as Timothy Drake-Wayne_ , having just left a Wayne Enterprises fundraising event and _knowing_ full well the media would be watching? Are you going to try to tell me next that you didn’t think there would be media hanging around as we left that event?”

“No, I just didn’t care,” Tim responded, turning his back to Bruce as he mounted the stairs.

“Tim…” Bruce began warningly.

“No, Bruce. It’s not like Tim Wayne was seen holding hands with the _Red Hood_ or something. And it’s not like the media has matched his face with that of Bruce Wayne’s onetime foster son, either; he’s just some random guy to them.”

“That’s not the point.”

Tim froze on second step, foot poised on the third. “Then what is?” he challenged, dropping the put-upon nonchalance and turning to glare down the older man.

“It’s that Bruce Wayne’s son suddenly shows up holding hands and standing close to another man without any prior warning,” Bruce explained. He paused. “And that Batman’s Robin is getting close to a dangerous aggressor.”

“So is the problem that Jason is a man or that he’s the Red Hood?” Tim asked drily. “Because as far as I was aware I had already made it perfectly clear to you that, first, I go both ways on that and, second, Jason has agreed to put his more violent means on hold to try to work with us on mutual terms.”

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before responding to Tim’s challenge, and when he did his words bore the weariness of a person making an argument they wished they'd never needed to make in the first place.

“Tim, I don’t care…or rather, I don’t mind that your preferences go either way, you know that. It’s that you made it public knowledge in that way _,_ like you were _trying_ to draw attention to yourself.”

“And what if I was?” Tim countered evenly. Bruce blinked, uncertain at that response.

“Why…? What were you hoping to accomplish?”

“Exactly what I have.”

Bruce sighed heavily. “And what is that exactly?”

Tim crossed his arms and mirrored Bruce’s firm expression in a way that made Bruce frown even more uncertainly. “We both know your biggest issue with that photograph isn’t that I’m holding hands with a man or that I didn’t control the release of information about my sexual orientation more carefully. Your problem is with the person I’m with; it’s with Jason.”

Bruce’s eyes flashed and he opened his mouth to retort but Tim plowed on over him.

“I’ve been working with the Red Hood for _months_ now, reining in his tactics and mediating little truces between the two of you. I’ve been working with him and seeing for the first time that he has nearly as much vision as you do for protecting the innocents of this city.

“I’ve been working _with him_ , Bruce, getting to see what he’s really like; enough to know he’s a better person – even now – than you give him credit for.” Tim considered his next point carefully for a moment then added:

“And, recently, we’ve started spending time together outside of uniform, too. I’m coming to know Jason Todd the person, not just Jason Todd the ‘evil’ Red Hood or Jason Todd the 'Lost Robin’ or whatever you seem to think he is now.”

Tim paused but Bruce remained stonily silent. Tim sighed. “We’ve been getting closer. We watch each other’s backs. We…” Tim stared blindly into the stalactites above them as he searched for the right words to describe what he and Jason had come to mean to each other.

"We care about what happens to one other now; it’s not about me making sure Jason doesn’t go over the deep end again or him trying to tear me away from the Batman anymore…" Tim paused to suck in a breath then pointedly stared Bruce in the straight in eye.

"We care about each other; I care about him. I... _like_ him, Bruce.”

Bruce stared back just as intensely and Tim watched his eyes dart minutely as he sifted through all the possible meanings and implications of what Tim had just admitted and then searched Tim’s expression for final confirmation.

After a tense moment, Bruce broke the silence.

“And you mean to tell me you _meant_ to broadcast all of that with a single photograph?”

Tim shrugged and shot Bruce a wry smirk before he turned to head up the stairs, calling over his shoulder, “Well, you know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words.”

**Author's Note:**

> My DCU tumblr sideblog is [redrobinfection](http://redrobinfection.tumblr.com/). Link for this work on tumblr: here. Thanks for reading!


End file.
